thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
I have long had an interest in the effectiveness of prayer for healing. My initial reaction to healing claims tends to be mild scepticism (I believe healing can occur but I don’t believe all claims of divine healing are credible), but I try to find cases where there is good evidence. So I am interested […]
I’ve been away on a short holiday for the last week, at a beautiful spot on the NSW coast. Our holiday unit is right on the beachfront, with views over the Pacific Ocean. We sleep just inside large glass doors, so we hear the sounds of the surf during the night, and wake as the […]
“The moon rose over an open field.” Teen angst. Most of us experienced it at one time. The teenage years, and into our early 20s are a time of new experiences that can often lead to feelings of extreme helplessness, alienation, even suicide. Most of us get over it in time – most of the […]
I came across another story of an apparent healing miracle recently, so I investigated it.
Religious people would like to think that their belief makes them happier and healthier. But is there any evidence of this? I have trawled the internet and found there is a growing interest in this subject. I have found more than 30 medical research papers or books, most of them from the past decade. They […]
Website design This website, in one form or another, is more than 7 years old. For most of that time I did the design and coding myself. But a year or so ago I decided I wanted to get the benefit of someone else’s design and coding – more professional graphic design, and coding that […]
It’s a feel-good story that’s been doing the rounds, but it bears repeating. A potentially nasty situation defused by a simple act of friendliness.
Atheists and christians alike often feel that not only is their belief true, but it is “nicer”. One argument, which has been made to me several times by atheists recently, is over who is more generous in giving to charity. It has little to do with the truth of belief, but are there any facts […]
Readers will know that courtesy in discussions between believers and unbelievers is something dear to my heart (see, for example, Atheists vs christians: does it have to be war? So when Matt, who has a blog titled Confessions Of A (former) Young Earth Creationist, asked me to write a post on Conversing with atheists and […]
We all know that the number of committed religious people is dropping in most western countries (see, e.g. Who believes in God?). And it’s not too hard to find stories on the internet of people who were brought up religious, but now disbelieve. It may be less well known that, at the same time, a […]